Oh, you kids know how I love me some Mike Bishop. Sometimes I blog about him, sometimes I doodle, sometimes we bring in some outsiders to expose his alter-ego. (Muwahaha!!) But do you all remember why I started loving him? Let me take you back.
Now some of you may remember that this little ditty was re-worked and run as an opinion piece in the Detroit Free Press? Well you all know what a cesspool the Detroit Free Press online can be. And what do you have in a cesspool?
Big flaming piles of poo.
One of these big flaming piles of poo, who I shall call "Darth Poo" found me on the Free Press and decided to start posting here. (Not sure if you can see his comments; he was troll-rated before being banned) I wasn't a part of this discussion because I was working down in Warren that day, and I had a wicked cold/flu thing. I told the Warren peeps to call me if they had a problem, and I took off early. By 3pm I was sleeping merrily in my bed, never having even looked at this thread.
Meanwhile, Darth Poo thought that I, Christine, was every single one of those people in that comment thread.
Really, he did.
I'm sleeping. My phone rang. I answered it, thinking it was someone at Warren who needed help.
Stupid. Stupid.
For the next few minutes, Darth Poo gave me a bunch of crap about France and Syria and BFM. (Keep in mind I just woke up.) And then he went on about Ann Coulter and how we liberals are pathetic for hating her. (I just woke up) And then he went on about how he could take down BFM any time he wanted if I didn't let him back on the site. (Just woke up ... shuffling my way to the computer now ... can't even see yet.) And how he knew my home address and my phone number ... ( Email from Wizardkitten, "just banned some guy name Darth Poo, he's nuts!")
I've been following the events in the Shiawassee Sheriff Department for quite some time. It started (officially) in the spring of 2007, when I threw some FOIAs out there just to see what I could catch. A lot has happened since then, and for the sake of grassroots / netroots everywhere, I thought I'd lay out some of the lessons I learned along the way.
Focus - My focus was critical to my personal credibility. If you've looked at the SCSD forum, you see some of these threads degenerate into a 'feeding frenzy' ... people talking about everything that Jon Wilson was ever accused of. I extracted what I thought was the most relevant information (the charges of assault) and through the FOIA process, I got the documents necessary to support those accusations. For the most part I completely ignored the other accusations. So when the Sheriff was out there telling the public that bloggers are liars, I was able to say, "He doesn't get to grab people, and here's the official county document that says he's doing it."
I only have a couple of minutes, but I just have to tell you about the latest douchebaggery on the part of my Sheriff, Jon Wilson. (Winner of the BFM Worst Political Site Ever Award) He must be nervous about his upcoming primary, because he's harassing his opponents something fierce.
Now our Sheriff Jon has 2 primary opponents; the first, Donald Gauthier, probably doesn't have much of a shot. He was a member of the Sheriff's Mounted Posse but otherwise doesn't have a lot of involvement in law enforcement (that I'm aware of) and isn't doing much campaigning. The other opponent is Deana Finnegan, an Assistant Prosecutor (Shiawassee Co) who has long been rumored to be in line for Judge Clatterbaugh's or Dick Ball's job. (We just hand these jobs off out here) She's campaigning, she has a high profile, and she's obviously making Wilson nervous.
The first thing he did was demand that she be removed from all of the cases that involved the SCSD. Apparently he felt that her candidacy would interfere with her doing her job as a prosecutor. Ok. Whatever.
Next he threatened to invoke the Hatch Act of 1939 against her. I don't think that's happened yet. If he's smart (ha!) he won't do it, because he also violated the Hatch Act when he ran for Sheriff the first time, and he can probably avoid counter-complaints by just shutting his pie-hole. (Wilson also attempted to use the Hatch Act to prevent the head of the SCSD Detectives Bureau from running for Sheriff by making him swap jobs with the head of Homeland Security. Literally, swap jobs. Shiawassee County Commissioners responded by removing Homeland Security from the Sheriff's control. Thank God for that, because there was a chemical spill the following week. Seriously. I can't make this up.)
And the latest act of harassment comes in the form of this letter, which was sent to Deana Finnegan's husband:
June 23, 2008
Mr. Patrick Finnegan
312 S Mizner Street
Corunna, MI 48817
Dear Mr. Finnegan:
Our insurance carrier has expressed concern over the fact that one of your vehicles has the words " Shiawassee County Sheriff's Department" listed on the side. The primary concern is that Shiawassee County could potentially incur legal liability if the vehicle is involved in an accident or misidentified by the public.
As a result, the Sheriff's Office is requesting that the words and any related insignia (current or previous) be removed immediately so that they are not discernible by the public.
Your prompt attention to this request will be sincerely appreciated.
Sincerely,
Jon Wilson, Sheriff
Shiawassee County Sheriff's Office
You guys have got to see this. It is the worst political site ever to hit the Internets.
I'll give the guy credit for going online. (Actually, I'll take credit for the guy going online, but that's not the point.) He is trying to do something with his site. You can donate, sign up to volunteer, contact him, etc.
But here's a little breakdown* of what else is on his site -
4) Seriously, the worst political video ever. And just in case you hadn't heard that Sheriff Jon Wilson assaulted his Deputy, he specifically mentions it at about 2:20 into the video. You know, just to set the record straight that he's never assaulted anyone, and especially none of his officers. Also, he doesn't answer to the Commissioners or the County Administrator or the Argus Press. Only to God, his wife, and ... um ... sorry, I don't know what comes after that. I was laughing so hard by that point, I couldn't hear what he was saying.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article on my hometown Sheriff, Jon Wilson. The Argus also ran an article on the Sheriff, based partially on my investigative work. At the time, Sheriff Wilson told our local paper that they would not get any more information from the department, if they ran a story about him.
Before the story ran, Wilson threatened The Argus-Press, saying the paper wouldn't receive any information from his department if it was published. He also told a reporter to be prepared to "take some responsibility."
Sheriff's officials confirmed a fatal traffic crash occurred Saturday morning but wouldn't release any information. Multiple officials said a recent change in policy instituted by Wilson prohibits anyone from giving any information.
...
At about 4 p.m. Monday, a phone message was left for an Argus-Press reporter from an employee of the sheriff's department stating "...this message is to notify you that if you would like any information for the press releases or any type of article you will have to FOIA them to our department."
I tell ya what, if you wanted to point out that your local Sheriff is a bully, you couldn't ask for a better reaction ...
The Sheriff leaned in close to the door and strained to hear the conversation on the other side. If he was quiet enough, he could just make out what they were saying. He knew them all well enough to identify them by their voices. If he was lucky, he'd make a bust.
If only he had remembered to check for the Office Manager, who was approaching him from behind.
"Sheriff?"
He was caught. He had no choice but to act quickly. He rushed forward, burst into the room, and caught them by surprise.
It has all the makings of really bad fiction, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it isn't fiction. It's the scene of the Shiawassee County Sheriff Department on the morning of April 3, 2007. It's the beginning of the incident that led to the assault of a Deputy and a alleged conspiracy involving the Captain of the 1st District of the Michigan State Police.
Shiawassee Co Sheriff Jon Wilson isn't terribly popular with his department. He has the distinction of having more grievances filed against him than any other Shiawassee Co Sheriff. (More, I hear, than all other previous Shiawassee Sheriffs combined.) He's so loose-lipped that he's considered a hazard to the Detective's Bureau, to the point where he's deliberately excluded from investigations. He creates a work environment that is so abusive and hostile that Deputies end up in the hospital from stress related ailments. He commands so little respect from within the department that no one would agree to be his Undersheriff. (He eventually gave the job to a magistrate)
But I digress, as I so often do when I have so much meat to chew. Back to the assault.
The picture I painted for you in the blockquote is as accurate as I can make it. Wilson was eavesdropping on the daily deputy coffee break, hoping to overhear something that he could use to 'get' his Deputies. Instead he ended up grabbing Lt. Mike Ash by the arm and pushing him in the hallway.
Ash immediately reported the incident to the county. He also filed a complaint with MSP Detective Sergeant Mark Pendergraff, who initiated the process of investigation.
That afternoon, the MSP 1st District Captain was incidentally visiting with Jon Wilson at office. Wilson was overheard saying that he would fire all of his Lieutenants, if necessary, to "make this go away." The MSP Captain was heard responding, "Don't worry, it won't go that far."
According to witness reports, a 1st District Detective Lieutenant contacted Pendergraff about a week after the incident, and told him not to proceed with the investigation. Pendergraff was instructed to direct the Shiawassee Deputies to conduct an internal investigation, or report to the Corunna City Police.
Oh, you kids know how I love me some Mike Bishop. Sometimes I blog about him, sometimes I doodle, sometimes 
